Salute Pilot!

With the Ides of March firmly in the rear mirror and April fool’s day around the corner it seems like winter is finally coming to an end which means that Fighter Base will soon be truly soaring.

Much of this week was devoted to getting team rooms set up and working so I hope you will try them out this weekend. With team rooms we now have scoring on the way and with scoring come ranks. Just remember that ranks will be reset several times while we refine and debug scoring so please don’t get too attached to your ranks, stars and scores.

See you in the skies of Fighter Base!

Mark a.k.a. MAVARick

Development Flight Log

Introducing TEAM BATTLE!

Choose your Team in the new tab of the main navigation bar (you still can chose any plane including from other Countries)

Friendly fire is disabled but not collision so avoid crashing into your Teammates 😉

Introducing the new and improved CHAT SYSTEM!

Chat can be customized in the lobby as well as in game

Pilots in the lobby can select channels on which to send and receive chat via the chat tab and popup menu

Private messages have been enabled

In game chat utilizes keyboard shortcuts (found in the Controls/Settings menu)

Channels include: All, Squadron, Team, and Pilot

We’re progressively introducing the scoring and stats so for now you’ll see a very limited implementation but come back regularly to see if there’s a new build as we will release several before 0.74.

Note that in the Training Arena the scores will never get updated so this will become the safe room where beginners can learn and enjoy the basics of combat flight without being targeted by seasoned aces!

Of course, we also fixed some bugs. One of those prevented new players from joining a battle with too many active players.

Quick reference for the new Chat when in flight:

SEND TO Filters

“C” + “A” resets the send to ALL

“C” + “S” your messages will be sent only to your Squadron

“C” + “T” your messages will be sent only to your Team

RECEIVE FROM Filters

“C” + “R” + “A” resets the receive from ALL

“C” + “R” + “S” you’ll only receive messages from your Squadron

“C” + “R” + “T” you’ll only receive messages from your Team

How can you help?

Whenever you experience an issue with the game please send us the logs so we can identify and fix the issue.

If you experience a crash then please open the log file folder (just paste %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Fighter Base LLC\Fighter Base in the address bar at the top of any windows folder – not the web browser).You will find a sub-folder named with the date and time of the crash, please ZIP it and send it to us.

If you haven’t experienced a crash but just a weird behavior before relaunching the game please go to the log file folder and look for the file “output_log.txt” which is located in the sub-folder “FighterBase_Data”

The last piece of information is in this folder %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Fighter Base LLC\Fighter Base\Logs please locate the log file with the date and time of when you experienced the issue

If you want to have direct input, and possibly influence the development of Fighter Base, please join the official Fighter Base Volunteer QA Team! Not only will we prioritize your feedback, but you’ll also get the opportunity to try new features before they go public!

Thank you!

Flashback… this week 76 years ago

28 March 1941 – Italian fleet surprised at “The Battle of Matapan”

The Italian heavy cruiser Bolzano under attack by Swordfish of the Fleet Air Arm on 28th March 1941. The photograph taken from the second aircraft shows the splash of a torpedo entering the water.

By unknown, Royal Navy [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The Royal Navy secured a famous victory over the Italian Navy in the Mediterranean. The official summary at the time did not mention that ‘Enigma’ decrypts had played an important role in the action:Air reconnaissance on the 27th March reported a force of enemy warships to the eastward of Sicily steering east. On the morning of the 28th March our light forces sighted one Littorio class battleship, accompanied by cruisers, to the south-west of Crete steering south-east, while air reconnaissance reported two battleships, cruisers and destroyers to the north of this position. On being sighted the enemy turned westward, proceeding at high speed.

During the day the Littorio class battleship was repeatedly and successfully attacked with torpedoes by the Fleet air arm which caused serious damage. A successful attack was also made by bombers of the R.A.F. on cruisers and destroyers. The loss of speed resulting from these air attacks enabled our heavier ships to gain contact with the enemy at dusk, and a short but decisive action took place, resulting in the loss of three enemy 8-inch cruisers (Pola, Zara and Fiume) and two destroyers, Vincenzo Gioberti and Maestrale.

It is probable that the 6-inch cruiser Giovanni Delle Bancle Nere and one other destroyer were also sunk. Two dive-bombers were shot down during daylight operations. Apart from three Naval aircraft which are missing, no damage or casualties were sustained by any of our ships.On the morning of the 29th nearly a thousand Italian survivors were rescued, which number would have been considerably increased had not German bombers attacked the rescuing ships. The Commander-in-Chief informed the Chief of the Italian Naval Staff of the position of the survivors, which he had been forced to abandon, and suggested that a hospital ship should be sent. A reply of thanks was received indicating that the hospital ship Piscana had already sailed. Greek destroyers which were rushed through the Corinth Canal arrived too late to take part in the action, but assisted to pick up survivors. Opposing forces consisted of British : three battleships, one aircraft carrier, four cruisers and twelve destroyers; Italian : three battleships, eleven cruisers and fourteen destroyers.